State Law Summary
New Jersey
Disclaimer
The following is a summary of the law prepared by law students under the supervision of a professor based on consulting multiple sources. It is only up to date as of the dates shown below and in many cases we had to make judgment calls. Therefore we encourage you to also consult the sources below, as well as the Restoration of Rights Project that include summaries of the law for all 50 states and US territories.
Summary of the Law
CONVICTIONS Bill Text: NJ S4154 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Chaptered | LegiScan | Clearing your records 2020 | CCRC New Jersey
- Misdemeanors:
- Expungement for disorderly person offenses (e.g. misdemeanors) upon 5 year waiting-period after completion of supervision
- Expungement for ordinance violations (e.g. misdemeanors) upon 2 year waiting-period after completion of supervision.
- Felonies:
- Expungement for indictable offenses (e.g. felonies or crimes defined in para. 4) upon 5 year year waiting-period after completion of supervision.
- Expungement for young drug offenders
- Lifetime or other Limits:Only 1 expungement may be granted per person in a lifetime for four total offenses with a maximum of one being an indictable offense. (N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:52-2).
- LFO payment required for sentence completion:n/a
- Other Unmodeled Criteria or details:
- Non-convicted charges in a conviction case may not be expunged unless and until the conviction itself is eligible for expungement.
NON-CONVICTIONS:[Statute]N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:52-6
- Expungement of records upon a finding of non-guilty. But no expungement where the dismissal, acquittal, or discharge resulted from a plea bargaining agreement involving the conviction of other charges. Once the conviction is eligible for expungement- the non- convictions will be as well § 2C:52-6(a)(3)
- Expungement for deferred adjudication upon 6 month waiting-period of 6 months from date of judgement.
- Non convictions not expungement if from insanity or lack of mental capacity (§ 2C52-6(d)
- No limitation as to number of times for non convictions § 2C:52-6(a)(5).
Exclusions:
- Expungement for Juvenile delinquency offenses upon a 5 year waiting-period after completion of supervision, except crimes for which they would be treated as an adult.
- Otherwise ineligible offenses can receive a pardon after a 5 year waiting-period.
- Expungement of arrests not leading to conviction are now handled by the court under expedited procedures at the time of dismissal.
